West Bengal’s Communist government completes 30 long years in office on Thursday with a vivid ideological volte-face over promoting industry that has left its throng of supporters bewildered.
Hitherto, it has set a world record in being the only Communist government to have been democratically elected six times ever, after taking power on June 21, 1977 at the head of a coalition of Left-leaning parties that capitalized on the mood following former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s Emergency rule in India.
A divided opposition has been unable to unseat the nine-party Left Front in election after election. But with protests breaking out over the government’s decision to take over farmland to build industry, West Bengal is witnessing, perhaps for the first time, an anti-Left sentiment that is unparalleled.
It was on June 21, 1977 that 64-year-old London-educated communist Jyoti Basu took oath as chief minister of West Bengal, heralding the birth of a government that has gone on to win one election after another and seemed invincible until the recent mass protests against land acquisition.
CPM leaders say more than 13,00,000 acres of land have been distributed among poor and landless people since 1977. In a state where about 83% of agricultural land is with the poor and marginalized farmers, the programme still continues.
But with chief minister Bhattacharya, who makes no bones talking about the “mistakes” of militant trade unionism, pledging to industrialize West Bengal in a big way, many of the poor are wondering if it will be at their cost.
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